Trump denies ‘deal’ with Schumer, Pelosi on ‘Dreamers’

Republicans will continue to suffer at the polls if they keep blocking the agenda that got Trump elected

(National Sentinel) Political Strategy: President Donald J. Trump is continuing to show his contempt for Republicans who have been actively thwarting his agenda by turning to Democratic leaders in order to push part of his agenda. But the turn to the opposition party is already carrying some risks.

Trump had dinner with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California last night, and afterward, both lawmakers announced they had reached a deal with Trump on DACA — the unconstitutional program implemented by President Obama that in effect granted blanket amnesty to hundreds of thousands of young illegal aliens brought into the country when they were children by their parents. Trump, in an executive order of his own, ended the program last week, but delayed implementation for six months to give Congress a chance to pass legislation that would essentially reinstate Obama’s program but do so via the constitutional legislative process.

“No deal was made last night on DACA,” Trump said in an early morning tweet.

“Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote,” Trump said in a series of tweets about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, The Associated Pressreported.

The AP noted further:

Trump contradicted the characterization of a private White House dinner on Wednesday night by his guests, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the top Democrats on Capitol Hill.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also pushed back against the Schumer-Pelosi statement embracing the claim of a deal, saying, “While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.”

“The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built,” Trump tweeted, later expressing sympathy for the so-called “Dreamers” who are now in legal limbo.

In their statement, Schumer and Pelosi said: “We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides.”

Separately, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill had said after the White House dinner that “the president was clear he would press for the wall but separate from this agreement.”

Republican leaders including Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin have said they opposed Trump’s order ending the DACA program.

Think of Trump’s ‘collusion’ with Democrats as you will, but to us it appears as though he’s playing both parties off of each other to get what he wants. Trump has never wavered from a primary campaign pledge to “build a wall” and he continues to stump for it. So far funding for the wall has been denied…by the GOP majority in Congress.

Trump has signaled repeatedly he would be supportive of a legislative fix to DACA, but he’ll want something for that. By ending a program important to leaders of both parties, then giving Congress a six-month window to fix it with legislation, he’s put lawmakers in the position of having to give in to him in order to get what they (and their donors) want. Frankly, that’s pretty smart.

Trump’s base isn’t going to leave him either way, but Republicans will continue to suffer at the polls if they keep blocking the agenda that got Trump elected, and that includes a “big, beautiful wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border.